I'm a grown up now with a big person's job.

My first couple of days back in Phnom Penh were very busy for me as I had to scramble around to what seemed like every single school in all of Cambodia to drop off my resume.  I was told that it was much better to show your face at a school and hand your in resume in person than to simply shoot them an email and wait for a reply.  After two days of traveling in tuk-tuk's all over the city with a new layer of dirt covering my freshly ironed interview outfit after every school I visited, I really couldn't be bothered going out to the last school on my list, Cambodia International Academy.  So I sent the academic supervisor my resume via email instead.  Funny that they were first school that called me back.   I had an interview, a demonstration teaching class and a full time job offer within the first weekend. 

I am now into my second week at Cambodia International Academy, a private international school for students K-12.    I am teaching 5th grade english, math, social studies and science.  Meet my morning students!  They are the sweetest. 

My favorite quotes from my students thus far: 

Note: In Cambodia, students will more often than not call their teachers "Chur." As in the last half of "teacher." 

"Teacher Rachael, you are from California?! You're like that Katy Perry Song." 

"Chur, I love your clothes. You are a fashion icon." (I am 100% sure she didn't understand the real meaning of fashion icon, but she was my favorite student of the day none the less.) 

"Chur are you Skype friends with Justin Bieber? Please say YES."

"Can you cook a chicken on the surface of the sun?" (I had just told my class that the surface of the sun was 6,000 degrees Celsius.) 

"That woman must be pregnant.  She has short legs." (I really couldn't tell you the context of that conversation...)

"2-4 is 2 Chur." (He sounded so confident when I asked him, like duhhh chur I'm not an idiot.)

"My girlfriend kick me so I kick her back." (I asked my student Barmey if he did anything fun over the weekend.  I don't know if that counts...)

It's quotes like these from my students that get me through the day just when I think I might go crazy!

It's My Life.

I have a long history of making quick decisions before I really sit down and think about the consequences, whether they be good or bad.  From going sky diving for the first time to packing my things and moving to Southeast Asia, I am not one to sit around and try to talk myself out of doing something I've put my mind to.

There are many aspects of my life of which I have absolutely no control over.  I've certainly learned the hard way that all of a sudden life can push you off the boat and leave you flailing in the middle of the ocean and all you can do is inflate your BCD and hope to keep your head above water.  And just when you're about to give up you look up and see there are two hands that are ready to pull you out of the water.  One is God's, and one is your own.  I've been there, gasping for breath, but what I've learned is that it's up to me to move on and make the best of what life has given me.  

For this reason, I take advantage of the comfort of knowing which parts of my life I can control.  I decide what I do with my spare time, whom I spend my time with, where I travel, where I live, what jobs I apply for.  I chose my own emotions and how I react to instances in my life and figure out whether or not to take them with a grain of salt.  I take responsibility for my actions.  I chose to be happy.  Granted, I've worked hard to get where I am, as happiness is not something that is served upon a silver platter.  Being happy is an reward you have to look to yourself for.  Too many times I've seen people living their lives clouded by the judgement of what they think is happiness, when really their lives are a reflection of someone else's.

"Tis' better to live your life imperfectly than live someone else's perfectly."

You need to do what makes you happy.  For me that was moving halfway across the world to live in a dirty third world country. :) Even though I miss my family and friends everyday, I needed to do this for me.

Point of this post being, I've again made a big decision in my time here in Southeast Asia.  I've once again packed up my suitcase, hopped on a plane, and moved back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  There were many reasons that factored into my decision to move out of Pattaya, but the main reason (or at least the one I'm telling myself) was because I wanted to be back with the friends I made here.  It had nothing to do with Thailand or the "sinful" culture in Pattaya, and I could see myself moving back there eventually, but to surround myself with good friends seemed like the right choice for the time being.  Jobs are also easier to come by here.


I only have one life, and I plan to make the best of it!

Sa waa dee kah!

I have always thought I was pretty good at picking up foreign languages.  When I lived in Italy I could get around without speaking any English and I could carry on a full conversation in Italian.  During my travels through Germany I could get by on the basics despite not having spoken a word of German since high school.  My confidence was pretty high.  Until I came to Thailand.  It was like a high kick straight to my foreign language ego.   The language of Thailand is perhaps one of the hardest things I've ever had to learn.  The only things I can think of that might be harder would be learning brain surgery or how to fly a space ship or something.

Reason being: Thai has five different tones. High, low, rising, falling, and flat.  Literally you can make a complete sentence using only one word depending on which tone you use.  What the heck? But to a native Thai speaker they are completely different words with different spellings and meanings.

ไม้ ใหม่ ไม่ ไหม้ ไหม

mai - mai - mai - mai - mai

high - low - falling - falling - high

"New wood doesn't burn does it?"

Example of my first Thai language FAIL:

Me: "Chan yak pai Pattaya Neah kah."  Meaning "I want to go North Pattaya please." Or so I thought.
Motor Bike Taxi Man I: something in Thai that I didn't understand and then a look of confusion. "I no understand." 
Me: "Pattaya Neah....Pattaya NEAH." 

...more confusion and then a second motor bike taxi man got involved and they are rapidly speaking Thai as I am frantically repeating "Pattaya neah." 


Motor Bike Taxi Man II: "Pattaya neah!"
Motor Bike Taxi Man I: "Ahhhhhhh Pattaya neah!" 
Me: "I flipping just said that." 


What I learned later was neah with a rising tone means North, but neah with a flat tone means beef.  So apparently I was telling this poor guy I wanted to go to Pattaya beef.  Oopsies.    

All beef aside, Thai is a fun language despite its obvious challenges.  It will make me more sympathetic towards my students as I know what it feels like to be the student learning a foreign language.